A  Good  Booke 


balmdand 

up  onpurpofe  toalife 


Ex  Libris 

JohnRBuehlerBQ 

New  A  York 


SOMETHING  WRONG 


Dr.  Andrew  Taylor  Still 


SOMETHING    WRONG 


BY 

GEORGE  V.  WEBSTER,   D.O. 

AUTHOR  OF  "CONCERNING  OSTEOPATHY,"  MEM- 
BER OF  NEW  YORK  STATE  OSTEOPATHIC  SOCIETY, 
MEMBER  OF  AMERICAN  OSTEOPATHIC  ASSOCIA- 
TION, MEMBER  OF  AMERICAN  OSTEOPATHIC  SO- 
CIETY OF  OPHTHALMOLOGY  AND  OTO-LARYNGOLOGY 


PREFACE 


J.   WILBURN  DEASON,  M.S.,  PH.  G.,  M.D.,  D.O. 

AUTHOR  OF  DEASON'S  PHYSIOLOGY,  LECTURER  AT  THE 
CHICAGO  COLLEGE  OF  OSTEOPATHY,  FORMER  DIRECTOR 
OF  THE  A.  T.  STILL  RESEARCH  INSTITUTE,  FORMER 
INSTRUCTOR  AT  THE  AMERICAN  SCHOOL  OF  OSTEOP- 
ATHY, MEMBER  OF  AMERICAN  OSTEOPATHIC  ASSOCIA- 
TION, MEMBER  OF  AMERICAN  OSTEOPATHIC  SOCIETY 
OF  OPHTHALMOLOGY  AND  OTO-LARYNGOLOGY,  MEM- 
BER OF  THE  ILLINOIS  OSTEOPATHIC  ASSOCIATION 


ILLUSTRATIONS  BY  HARRIET  E.  KNAPP 


THE  PLIMPTON  PRESS 

NORWOOD,  MASS. 

1919 


COPYRIGHT,   1918 
BY  G.   V.  WEBSTER,  D.  O. 


THE-PLIMPTON-PKESS 

NOB  WOOD-MAS  S-U-S-A 


DEDICATED  TO 

MY   SON 
GEORGE  V.  WEBSTER,  JUNIOR 


999^1 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PART  I 
Still Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The  Savage 21 

A  Spoonful  of  Something 26 

The  Ox  Cart 38 

The  Scientist 40 


PART   II 

A  Sack  of  Notions 44 

Scrambled  Eggs 57 

Squinting 68 

Santa  Glaus 83 

The  Hum  of  Your  "  Works "  .     .     .     .  85 

An  Inventory 87 


PREFACE 
BY  J.  DEASON,  M.S.,  PH.G.,  M.D.,  D.O. 

NOT  without  a  true  love  for  nature 
and  a  desire  to  investigate  her  in- 
tricacies can  man  ever  appreciate  the 
wonderful  knowledge  which  she  holds 
in  store  for  him.  The  great  students 
of  nature  to  whom  has  been  unfolded 
her  great  books  of  truth  —  the  men 
and  women  of  seemingly  simple  mind 
—  have  been  content  to  study  life's 
natural  laws  as  they  are. 

Such  a  man  was  Luther  Burbank, 
for  he  studied  plant  life  in  such  a 
way  as  to  learn  to  make  plants  do 
his  bidding.  So  the  science  of  grow- 
ing combined  varieties,  most  beauti- 
ful and  most  useful,  was  developed. 
Such  a  man  was  Charles  Darwin, 
from  whose  studies  and  comparisons 
of  animal  life  the  theory  of  evolution 
grew.  Such  a  man  was  Sir  Francis 

On] 


PREFACE 

Gallon,  the  father  of  eugenics.  It 
was  he  who  saw,  in  the  transmission 
of  inherited  characteristics,  a  way  to 
improve  the  human  race.  Another 
such  man  was  Dr.  A.  T.  Still.  It 
was  he  who  saw  the  body's  greatest 
efficiency  in  the  practical  application 
of  mechanical  principles  to  the  human 
machine.  It  was  Dr.  Still  who  first 
saw  something  wrong  with  the  human 
engine  when  it  failed  to  work  properly 
and  that  condition  which  we  call 
disease  took  possession  of  the  body. 
In  the  preparation  of  this  little 
book  it  has  been  the  author's  purpose 
to  teach  its  readers  to  think  and  to 
reason  in  terms  of  the  relation  of 
structure  to  function.  Most  teachers 
of  physiology  tell  us  that  "man  is  a 
machine,"  and  right  there  they  prac- 
tically throw  the  monkey  wrench 
away,  and  from  the  introduction  of 
that  subject  to  its  completion  in  the 
university,  physiology  is  not  taught 
from  the  mechanical  viewpoint. 
C  viii  ] 


PREFACE 

Dr.  Webster  has  most  clearly  and 
interestingly  explained  the  workings 
of  the  body  machine  and  what  it 
means  when  something  goes  wrong. 

Time  was  when  most  people  thought 
they  needed  a  "tonic"  at  certain 
times  of  the  year.  Doctors  thought 
so  and  advised  it.  Many  still  so 
advise,  but  the  fact  is  the  term 
" tonic"  is  not  to  be  found  in  modern 
texts  on  materia  medica  or  pharma- 
cology. Likewise,  calomel  was  once 
(and  even  yet  by  the  uninformed) 
thought  to  produce  an  increased  secre- 
tion of  bile  by  the  liver.  It  is  now 
known  that  it  not  only  does  not  do 
this,  but  actually  retards  such  action. 

A  professor  of  pharmacology  in  a 
certain  leading  medical  school  recently 
told  me  that  he  now  teaches  but  ten 
drugs,  and  that  he  believes  that  very 
few  of  these  have  any  actual  value. 
In  a  case  of  illness  in  his  own  family 
he  advised  neither  drugs,  vaccines, 
nor  serums. 

[ix] 


PREFACE 

In  these  few  facts  there  is  ample 
evidence  of  many  of  the  statements 
made  by  Dr.  Webster.  Learning  new 
things  is  no  easy  task,  but  unlearning 
old  things  is  even  more  difficult.  In 
the  process  of  mental  evolution  there 
is  ever  a  constant  struggle  between 
reason  and  tradition.  It  is  the  osteo- 
pathic  purpose  to  teach  men  and 
women  to  think  in  harmony  with 
the  evidence  of  science.  Osteopathy 
appeals  to  those  who  read,  who  think, 
who  reason. 


SOMETHING  WRONG 

PART  I 

Something  is  wrong  or  things  would 
go  right! 

When  your  automobile  backfires, 
you  know  for  a  certainty  something  is 
wrong.  Some  small  part  needs  ad- 
justment. You  naturally  seek  the 
services  of  the  mechanic  at  the  garage, 
if  you  are  not  a  "fix-it"  genius  your- 
self. You  or  the  mechanic  or  any 
other  sane  person  would  not  dream 
that  the  condition  might  be  corrected 
by  pills  deposited  at  intervals  in  the 
gasoline  tank. 

Suppose  the  farmer  observes  that 
his  reaper  is  not  tying  the  bundles 
of  grain  properly.  He  might  be  con- 
sidered crazy  if  he  tried  to  remedy 
the  matter  by  putting  a  plaster  on 
the  knot-making  mechanism. 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

When  mother's  electric  washer  will 
not  run  with  the  current  on,  does  she 
send  for  the  painter  to  decorate  it  with 
a  new  coat  of  paint?  Absurd!  Yes, 
but  didn't  that  same  mother  smile 
an  acquiescence  when  her  daughter's 
sprained  and  dislocated  ankle  was 
painted  with  liniment? 

Is  it  possible  for  the  proprietors 
of  human  brains  to  be  less  reason- 
able regarding  their  own  physical 
mechanism  than  they  are  about  the 
disorders  that  appear  in  their  every- 
day machinery? 

Certainly,  something  is  wrong  or 
things  would  go  right! 

Man  is  a  delicate  vital  organism. 
To  harbor  our  spirits,  the  laws  of 
mechanics  are  in  copartnership  with 
the  laws  of  chemistry  and  the  laws 
of  life.  The  harmonious  cooperation 
of  each  member  of  this  firm  conditions 
our  tenancy.  With  the  mechanism 
of  our  body  perfect,  the  chemicals 
which  our  machine  produces  for  its 

[12] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

own  use  will  be  faultless.  Then  the 
life  forces  will  flow  without  interrup- 
tion, providing  for  us  a  comfortable 
habitation. 

You  may  not  have  thought  from 
just  this  viewpoint  about  this  little 
intricate  assemblage  of  tissues  you 
call  yourself.  If  people  cogitated  as 
logically  about  their  physical  some- 
thing wrongs  as  they  do  concerning 
the  faults  of  man's  inventions,  many 
bodily  infirmities  would  be  correspond- 
ingly abbreviated. 

The  little  ticks  that  spell  hours 
and  days  and  lifetimes  are  the  music 
of  a  man-made  instrument.  If  your 
watch  is  running  too  slow,  would 
you  subject  it  to  the  rigors  of  a 
cathartic,  or  would  you  be  sensible 
and  have  some  one  acquainted  with 
its  anatomy  do  the  needed  fixing? 

"Trauma"  means  an  injury  by 
violence.  The  members  of  the  human 
family  are  subject  to  trauma  through- 
out the  hours  that  intervene  between 

[13] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

their  first  cry  and  the  final  gasp.  It 
would  take  a  big  diary  to  chronicle 
all  the  traumatic  events  that  wrench 
and  rack  bones  and  sinews  during 
the  days  of  the  average  individual. 

The  human  frame  is  made  to  with- 
stand much  stress  and  strain.  Ac- 
cidents may  not  leave  an  enduring 
consequence;  yet  often  some  structure 
by  a  mishap  is  forced  from  its  normal 
relationships  without  its  possessor 
being  aware  of  the  fault.  Later  he 
discovers  something  wrong  with  the 
daily  program  of  some  organ  or  part 
of  his  body. 

The  mechanism  may  also  become 
deranged  through  fatigue,  faults  of 
habit,  postural  defects,  results  of  in- 
fection, improper  use  or  unnatural 
environment.  Yet  withal,  injuries  and 
strains,  more  or  less  severe,  may  be 
accounted  the  most  frequent  cause  of 
disturbance  to  the  mechanical  struc- 
ture upon  which  our  health  depends. 

Nature    has    a   way    of   hiding    her 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

secrets  from  you  and  from  me.  Less 
than  three  hundred  years  ago  no 
one  knew  that  the  blood  circulated. 
A  century  back  and  germs  were  not 
on  our  visitor's  list.  Fifty  years  ago, 
no  one  ever  thought  of  making  gen- 
eral application  of  the  principles  of 
mechanics  to  correct  the  disorders 
of  the  body  recognized  as  disease. 
Nature's  treasured  secrets  are  be- 
coming common  property.  We  are 
still  learning  —  still  in  the  process 
of  evolution.  The  laws  of  aviation 
are  as  old  as  those  of  gravitation, 
but  most  of  us  can  remember  when 
the  first  flying  machine  featured  the 
county  fairs.  The  laws  of  bodily 
mechanics  are  as  ancient  as  the  race; 
now  they  are  being  applied  to  remedy 
human  infirmities.  Their  principles 
are  made  available  to  the  sufferer 
from  physical  derangement,  through 
osteopathic  discovery,  investigation, 
and  practice. 

Disease    is    another   name    for   per- 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

verted  physiology  —  disordered  func- 
tion. Function,  or  discharge  of  duty, 
in  man's  body  is  just  as  impossible 
without  structure  as  it  is  in  an 
electric  motor  without  definite  ar- 
rangement of  parts. 

If  you  drive  your  car  over  an 
embankment,  you  will  probably  need 
some  one  who  can  adjust  and  repair. 
You  would  have  small  use  for  a 
chemist  just  then. 

If  your  boy  tumbles  down  the 
hatchway,  it  is  decidedly  the  more 
likely  that  it  is  his  mechanical  struc- 
ture, rather  than  his  chemistry,  that 
first  suffers  disturbance.  The  first 
indication,  however,  that  something 
is  wrong  with  your  lad  may  be  the 
discovery  sometime  later  that  his 
liver  is  shirking.  Just  a  few  ounces 
of  reason  sprinkled  on  the  situation 
and  it  is  easy  to  understand  what 
that  fall  did  to  the  mechanism  con- 
trolling the  functions  of  his  liver. 

It    is    apparently    the    liver,    as    a 

C'6] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

manufacturer  of  chemicals,  that  is 
first  discovered  at  fault,  rather  than 
the  communicating  tissues  control- 
ling that  organ.  The  liver,  faithful 
servant,  obeys  its  governing  mecha- 
nism, as  does  a  locomotive  the  throttle. 
A  man  may  be  able  to  analyze  star 
dust,  but  how  would  such  training 
assist  him  either  in  finding  or  in 
adjusting  a  displaced  tenth  dorsal 
vertebra?  That  mischievous  vertebra 
could  be  the  one  that  had  crossed 
nature's  wires  to  the  liver. 

There  was  a  man  in  our  town. 
He  is  in  the  asylum  now.  He  insisted 
on  putting  a  little  strychnine  in  his 
telephone  whenever  he  could  not  ring 
central.  His  wife  has  a  second  rib 
twisted.  It  irritates  the  sympathetic 
nerve  fibers  to  the  heart.  She  takes 
a  little  strychnine  now  and  then  for 
her  palpitation  and  is  accredited  sane. 
Funny,  isn't  it  -  -  two  mechanisms 
—  one  an  electrical  contrivance,  the 
other  a  vital  mechanism,  something 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

wrong  with  both?  Can  you  distin- 
guish any  great  difference  in  the 
relative  sanity  which  wishes  to  ad- 
minister strychnine  in  each  instance? 

If  we  were  not  vital,  physico-chemi- 
cal mechanisms  subject  to  structural 
and  functional  disturbance,  the  osteo- 
path could  not  justify  his  calling. 

Friends  have  just  brought  our  sis- 
ter home.  She  has  been  injured  in 
a  street-car  accident.  There  are  no 
open  wounds,  but  she  suffers  pain. 
She  must  have  a  doctor  at  once. 
Which  is  the  more  logical,  to  call 
in  attendance  one  taught  to  smother 
pain  or  one  trained  to  relieve  distress 
by  correcting  the  mechanical  basis  for 
suffering?  Wrongs  should  be  righted, 
not  blanketed! 

You  would  not  expect  a  watch  to 
perform  its  function  as  a  chronometer, 
if  it  were  not  mechanically  perfect. 
Function  is  manifest  through  struc- 
ture —  and  only  through  structure.  As 
a  simple  proposition  in  physics,  when 
[18] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

the  structure  is  perfect,  function  will 
be  perfect.  This  is  true  to  the  last 
analysis  —  no  scientist  in  his  labora- 
tory has  been  able  to  negative  that 
proposition. 

Life  is  energy;  electricity  is  energy; 
heat  is  energy;  yet  none  can  mani- 
fest its  energy  except  through  some 
material  structure.  The  body  is  the 
form  through  which  our  life  is  mani- 
fest. Its  parts  must  be  arranged  per- 
fectly or  disorder  and  disease  result. 

When  the  water-wheel  is  not  de- 
livering the  full  power  under  normal 
head,  the  millwright  would  be  beside 
himself  to  pour  acid  or  alkali  into  the 
intake  with  a  view  to  correcting  the 
trouble.  Rather,  he  wisely  regulates 
the  machinery  in  accordance  with 
the  laws  of  physics,  and  the  wheel 
delivers  its  full  power. 

Whatever  in  the  final  analysis  life 
itself  may  be,  it  is  never  manifest 
except  through  structure.  Destroy  or 
distort  the  structure  and  life's  mani- 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

festations  are  destroyed  or  distorted. 
This  is  true  of  the  body  as  a  whole, 
of  each  organ  as  a  part  of  a  body,  and 
of  each  cell  as  a  part  of  an  organ. 

The  savage  applied  his  incantation; 
the  magician,  his  magic;  the  super- 
stitious, his  credulous  practice;  the 
faithful,  his  prayer;  the  drug  vendor, 
his  empirical  remedy,  but  human 
bodies  having  something  wrong  with 
their  structure  have  continued  to  be 
a  source  of  torment  to  their  possessors 
since  the  days  of  the  cave  men. 

Johnnie  fell  off  the  fence,  as  John- 
nies are  apt  to  do.  A  month  later 
his  digestion  was  mysteriously  im- 
paired. Green  apples  and  mince-pie 
both  defaulted  the  responsibility. 
Dope  or  diet  gave  imperfect  comfort. 
Something  was  wrong  -  -  had  been 
wrong  —  ever  since  the  fall.  Johnnie's 
tongue  or  temperature  or  "tummy" 
did  not  indicate  where  the  trouble 
was  any  more  than  a  one-eyed  auto- 
mobile will  tell  you  where  the  circuit 

[20] 


The  savage  applied  his  incantation 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

is  broken.  The  man  who  located 
Johnnie's  real  difficulty  knew  the 
anatomy  and  physiology  sufficiently 
well  to  locate  a  twisted  rib  interfering 
with  the  nervous  pathways  to  his 
stomach.  When  the  head  of  a  rib 
was  obtruding  upon  the  sympathetic 
nerve  to  Johnnie's  lunch  basket,  that 
stomach  felt  about  as  comfortable  as 
does  your  foot  when  an  obtrusion  of 
similar  character  on  the  sciatic  nerve 
puts  "pins  and  needles"  in  your  toes. 
The  rib  was  "fixed."  Johnnie  ate 
normally  and  was  well. 

It  takes  a  shopman  longer  to  over- 
haul a  car  that  has  hurdled  a 
stone  wall  than  to  tighten  a  bolt  in 
the  steering  column.  Disorders  of  the 
human  mechanism  vary  from  slight 
disturbances  to  general  interruption 
of  the  activities.  Some  adjustments 
of  structure  can  be  made  easily  — 
others  require  more  days  of  grace  — 
many  have  been  so  neglected  that  the 
damage  is  beyond  repair. 

[22] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

Disease  has  been  comparatively  free 
from  an  accounting  to  human  under- 
standing. Some  of  its  codes,  however, 
have  been  illuminated.  The  discovery 
of  the  mechanical  causes  as  factors 
which  produce  symptoms,  recognized 
as  disease,  evidently  struck  the  mother 
lode  in  the  mining  operations  for 
therapeutic  truth. 

Poisons  are  destructive  to  life. 
What  logic  can  be  found  in  the 
administration  of  a  poison,  even  in 
infinitesimal  portions,  by  any  one  in- 
terested in  the  preservation  of  life? 
Any  substance  (except  water)  without 
food  value  introduced  into  the  human 
system  is  an  irritant  or  a  poison. 
The  cells  of  the  body  react  to  a 
poison  in  their  effort  at  self-protection. 
They  try  to  eliminate  or  neutralize  it. 
When  the  body  is  laboring  under  the 
handicap  of  disorder  and  disease  what 
logical  excuse  can  be  forthcoming  for 
adding  to  its  embarrassment? 

Education   is  training  in  the  com- 

[23] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

prehension  of  life  and  its  environ- 
ment. Disease  occurs  in  the  environ- 
ment of  human  tissues.  Its  inter- 
pretation is  in  terms  of  perverted 
physiology.  Man's  body  being  the 
scene  of  disease,  then  of  what  avail 
to  chase  a  rattlesnake  for  its  venom, 
invest  in  a  little  mercury,  or  extract 
a  drop  of  poison  from  the  ivy,  with 
the  idea  of  assisting  a  disordered 
structure  to  function  properly?  Any 
good  seamstress  knows  that  bottled 
snake-bites  will  not  adjust  by  as  much 
as  a  hair's  breadth  the  tension  on  her 
sewing  machine.  Mercury  has  its 
service  to  perform  for  the  comfort 
and  preservation  of  the  race,  but 
what  potency  of  mercury  has  ever 
been  known  to  correct  a  displaced 
joint? 

A  typewriter  will  work  with  almost 
any  kind  of  oil,  or  for  a  time  without 
oil;  but  green  oil  or  pink  oil  or  sperm 
oil  or  mineral  oil  all  appear  incom- 
petent to  this  useful  instrument  when 

[24] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

a  type  bar  is  bent.  With  the  align- 
ment disturbed,  a  mechanic  and  not 
an  oil  epicure  should  be  conscripted. 

Osteopathy  is  just  another  way  to 
write  opportunity.  It  affords  the  sick 
the  opportunity  of  having  the  me- 
chanical something  wrongs  corrected 
so  that  every  little  movement  of 
every  tiny  cell  in  every  lane  or  corner 
of  the  body  will  have  perfect  and 
natural  freedom. 

Who  would  direct  a  chauffeur  to 
put  a  teaspoonful  of  any  odorous, 
amber  liquid  in  the  radiator  for 
the  purpose  of  preventing  a  knock 
in  the  engine?  Yet  it  was  from  a 
big  brown  bottle  that  I  saw  one 
chauffeur's  "boss"  swallow  a  tea- 
spoonful  of  "something."  He  had 
been  told  that  it  would  cure  his  hay 
fever.  He  did  not  know  that  the 
bones  of  his  neck  had  slipped  or  that 
there  were  bony  irregularities  in  his 
nose  that  actually  needed  fixing  by 
an  expert  physiological  engineer.  He 

[25] 


A  teaspoonjul  of  "something" 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

had  been  told  one  thing.  He  had  still 
to  learn  the  others. 

By  the  way,  this  telling  game  is  a 
comfortable  one  for  the  teller;  es- 
pecially if  the  spokesman  has  on  his 
side  tradition,  and  on  the  part  of 
his  listener  luxuriant  ignorance  and 
bliss.  Most  of  us  know  only  that 
which  we  have  been  told.  Few  of  us 
uncover  new  truths  for  ourselves. 
Why  believe  all  we  are  told?  Why 
not  put  the  plausible  tale  in  the  test 
tube  with  truth  and  reason?  The 
reaction  would  often  provide  more 
glory  for  the  tube  than  for  the  tale. 
Scientific  ideas  still  penetrate  the 
mind  of  the  average  individual  a  bit 
more  readily  than  hailstones  puncture 
a  pavement.  Columbus  discovered  this 
fact  years  before  he  embarked  for  his 
westward  journey.  It  is  human  nature, 
you  know,  to  oppose  what  is  not  under- 
stood. "We  are  down  on  what  we 
are  not  up  on." 

Wigwag  your  eyebrows.     Catch  this 

[27] 


SOMETHING    WRONG 

signal,  for  right  here  is  where  are  listed 
a  few  of  the  workable  mechanical 
toys  in  and  about  your  joyful  self. 
When  you  know  about  them,  you  will 
better  understand.  There  are  levers 
at  every  joint  —  hundreds  of  them  in 
all.  There  is  a  pump  under  the  breast. 
There  are  pulleys  in  the  eye.  There  is 
a  storage  battery  in  the  skull.  There 
is  a  complete  plumbing  system,  even 
to  traps,  valves,  and  vents.  There  is  a 
sewage  system  perfect  for  every  need. 
There  is  a  filter  at  the  kidney,  an- 
other at  the  liver,  and  still  another  at 
the  lung.  At  every  gland  there  is  a 
chemical  factory  —  collecting  and  re- 
arranging the  materials  needed  by  the 
body.  Every  organ  is  a  living  work- 
shop having  its  mechanical,  chemical, 
and  vital  relationships.  None  of  these 
adaptive  mechanisms  grew  from  a 
bottle,  nor  can  it  be  conceived  how 
the  contents  of  a  bottle  will  recall 
their  usefulness  when  once  it  is  im- 
paired. 

[28] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

Tissues  we  can  examine.  They  are 
organic  fabrics.  Some  of  their  prop- 
erties chemistry  has  made  known  to 
us.  But  life  itself  has  never  been  an- 
alyzed; it  is  known  only  through  its 
manifestations  in  cell  and  tissue. 

Atoms  must  obey  chemical  laws; 
forms  must  obey  physical  laws;  ef- 
fects must  follow  causes.  As  a  source 
of  physical  disorder,  the  mechanical 
structure  comes  first,  the  chemical  re- 
actions second,  and  the  vital  reactions 
last.  A  failure  of  the  mechanical 
foretells  the  failure  of  all;  a  fail- 
ure in  the  chemical  is  impossible  with 
normal  structure  and  an  adequate 
supply  of  raw  materials.  A  failure 
of  the  vital  is  not  possible  without 
first  a  disturbance  in  one  or  the  other 
of  the  basic  sciences  (physics  and 
chemistry),  through  which  it  is  made 
evident.  Mechanical  disturbances 
must  then  be  the  foundation  of  much 
physiological  disturbance.  There  is 
always  a  discernible  something  wrong, 

[29] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

be  the  investigator  adequately  trained 
and  the  search  sufficiently  thorough 
to  discover  it. 

Disease  comes  in  one  of  several 
ways.  Mechanical  disturbance  is  un- 
doubtedly the  most  frequent  cause. 
Next  in  order  is  chemical  disturbance 
through  imperfect  supply,  the  product 
of  infection,  or  the  intake  of  poison. 
Vital  disturbances  through  exhaustion 
or  inhibition  are  logically  the  least 
frequent  sources  of  disease  and  fre- 
quently depend  upon  the  first-men- 
tioned causes. 

The  life  processes,  from  a  therapeu- 
tic viewpoint,  may  be  considered  rela- 
tively important  in  the  order  of  our 
knowledge  of  them.  Human  knowl- 
edge, in  its  completeness,  follows  this 
order:  first,  the  structure;  second, 
the  chemistry;  last,  the  vital.  Man 
knows  less  about  the  vital  reactions  in 
the  body  than  he  understands  about 
the  chemical  reactions.  He  is  less  ac- 
quainted with  the  chemical  reactions 

[30] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

than  with  the  structural  relationships. 
Why  should  he,  then,  even  try  side- 
stepping the  better  known,  to  tamper 
with  the  less  understood,  when  dis- 
order appears? 

The  disagreeable  things  of  the 
world  are  passing.  The  mechanical 
millennium  is  coming.  The  binder 
has  saved  the  backaches  of  the  farmer. 
The  vacuum  cleaner  has  lessened  the 
labor  of  the  housewife.  The  electric 
car  saves  the  time  and  energy  of  the 
commuter.  The  elevator  saves  much 
leg-weariness  for  us  all.  Progress  not 
less  significant  is  also  to  be  found  in 
the  healing  art.  A  wise  man  does 
not  go  for  weeks  with  a  rampant 
functional  disorder  of  his  intestines. 
He  has  the  deranged  mechanism  fixed 
and  the  intestine  behaves.  He  has 
learned  that  "  costiveness "  means 
something  wrong  and  he  goes  to  one 
who  has  studied  the  delicate  mechanism 
involved  to  have  the  wrong  located 
and  corrected.  There  is  something 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

wrong  with  any  man's  information 
or  judgment  when  he  takes  pills 
(chemicals)  for  an  evident  mechanical 
disorder. 

Conditions  have  causes  —  be  it  in 
social,  political,  or  physical  life.  No 
adequate  remedy  is  available  without 
a  knowledge  of  causes.  Osteopathy 
concerns  itself  with  the  birthplace  of 
our  ills  —  with  the  something  wrong. 
It  recognizes  that  the  cause  is  most 
frequently  structural,  but  may  include 
other  factors:  environmental,  occupa- 
tional, dietetic,  parasitic,  etc. 

A  Missourian  apprehended  and  first 
made  general  application  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  adjustment  of  structure  as  a 
prerequisite  to  normal  function.  Gross 
adjustments,  such  as  the  setting  of 
dislocations,  had  been  recognized  and 
practiced  for  a  long  time  prior  to  his 
coming,  but  the  conception  and  ap- 
plication of  this  principle  of  adjust- 
ment to  the  minute  anatomy  was  the 
product  of  the  brain  of  Dr.  Andrew 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

Taylor  Still.  All  honor  to  him!  He 
uncovered  a  fundamental  biological 
truth  which  complements  and  unifies 
all  other  therapeutic  truths  gleaned 
by  centuries  of  experience.  He  pre- 
sented a  system  of  therapy  at  once  in 
harmony  with  anatomy,  physiology,  pa- 
thology, bacteriology,  theology  (God 
in  man),  and  all  other  "ologies"  whose 
foundation  is  demonstrated  truth. 
He  discovered  that  there  was  always 
something  wrong  mechanically  some- 
where in  the  body  or  disease  and  dis- 
order would  not  be. 

The  logic  of  adjusting  structure  in 
order  to  normalize  a  function  stood  as 
an  undiscovered  continent  on  the  face 
of  the  physical  world  until  Dr.  Still 
became  the  Columbus  to  demonstrate 
that  scientific  therapy  was  not  a  flat 
earth  checkered  with  lands  of  ex- 
periment and  waters  of  uncertainty, 
but  a  fine  sphere  —  a  complete  whole. 

The  laws  of  life  are  harmonious. 
Dr.  Still  was  right!  Osteopathy  is 

[33] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

right!  !  He  formulated  two  laws 
which  in  their  importance  to  the  hu- 
man race  stand  beside  Newton's  law 
of  gravitation  and  Darwin's  law  of 
evolution.  The  first  is  that  normal 
structure  is  a  prerequisite  for  normal 
function,  and  the  second  is  the  law 
of  the  chemical  immunity  of  the  body. 
Both  have  absolutely  stood  the  test 
of  time  and  the  investigations  of 
scientific  research.  It  was  upon  these 
fundamental  principles  and  laws  that 
he  founded  his  school  of  healing. 
He  choose  to  call  the  application  of 
those  laws,  or  his  system  of  practice, 
"osteopathy."  Its  complete  ramifi- 
cations are  not  yet  fully  explored  - 
but  as  a  basic,  biological,  and  thera- 
peutic truth  it  has  attained  a  place 
in  science  that  cannot  be  disturbed. 
Superstition,  prejudice,  hearsay,  and 
ignorance  long  formed  the  four  side 
walls  for  the  stockade  restraining 
general  scientific  knowledge  of  dis- 
ease. Such  knowledge  seeks  liberty  in 

[34] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

this  land  of  liberty.  Issue  its  emanci- 
pation proclamation,  so  far  as  you  per- 
sonally are  concerned.  Tumble  all  your 
superstition,  prejudice,  hearsays,  and 
lack  of  information  out  into  your 
mental  backyard  and  place  a  contract 
for  a  new  home  for  ideas  —  not  a  stock- 
ade— with  the  well-rated  firm  of  "Think 
&  Reason."  They  are  architects  of 
ability. 

Just  because  a  man  cannot  grasp 
the  anatomical  and  physiological  re- 
lationships that  link  a  subluxated  rib 
with  asthma  is  no  proof  that  such 
does  not  exist.  Many  mental  engines 
stall  at  the  osteopathic  concept.  Some 
even  backfire  and  others  let  their 
rear  wheels  spin  in  the  mud. 

Mark  this  word  about  osteopathy. 
Weigh  it  in  carats  or  tons,  as  you 
choose.  She  is  a  real  therapeutic 
"tank,"  stalls  at  no  scientific  evidence, 
and  goes  "over  the  top"  to  achieve- 
ment and  victory. 

Show  me  the  man  who  has  studied 

[35] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

the  body  with  the  idea  of  mastering 
its  mechanics  and  I  will  nod  my 
approval  to  him  as  the  man  I  would 
rather  have,  above  all  others,  inves- 
tigate my  condition  when  something 
goes  wrong. 

An  osteopath  may  be  called  a  "fool 
and  a  fanatic,"  but  he  is  hospitable 
to  demonstrated  truth.  Sometimes  he 
knows  no  more  than  to  push  a  rib 
or  vertebra  through  its  normal  range 
of  movement  and  let  a  poor  sufferer 
get  well.  Just  catalogue,  if  you  will, 
the  things  that  might  have  been 
done  to  that  unhappy  individual  in 
the  name  of  "science"  without  so 
much  as  locating  the  offending  rib. 
Knowledge  is  crowding  out  guess- 
work. The  knowledge  which  osteop- 
athy has  given  to  the  world  pushes 
backward  into  history  many  gen- 
eral misconceptions  of  the  origin  and 
nature  of  disease. 

The  brainiest  man  in  Wisertown  can 
find  few  answers  to  human  ills  in 

[36] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

the  pharmacopeia.  Influences  may  be 
there  detailed,  but  as  answers  they 
are  as  unpromising  as  fables  in  mathe- 
matics. Of  the  drug  family,  there 
are  but  three  whom  the  osteopath 
delights  to  call  his  friends.  The 
friendship  is  on  scientific  grounds. 
Their  first  names  each  begin  with  A, 
Antiseptic,  Antidote,  and  Anaesthetic. 
They  are  noble  sons  of  chemistry. 
They  are  subject  to  service  to  make 
life  more  tolerable  for  mankind. 

Drugs  as  remedies  are  going  the 
way  of  the  ox-cart.  It  certainly  is 
illogical  and  worthy  of  relegation  to 
give  a  chemical  "something"  for  a 
symptom  when  a  definite  mechanical 
cause  can  be  found  to  account  for 
the  something  wrong. 

This  little  conversation  took  place 
in  an  osteopath's  office  after  his  pa- 
tient had  taken  six  months  of  treatment. 
She  was  a  woman  of  thirty-five 
and  had  been  relieved  of  suffering  that 
had  tortured  her  for  twenty  years. 

[37] 


Drugs  as  remedies  are  going  the  way  of  the  ox-cart 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

She  said,  "Just  to  think,  my 
doctor  used  to  tell  me  such  suffering 
was  the  'heritage  of  woman." 

The  osteopathic  physician  inquired, 
"Was  he  right?" 

She  replied,  "No,  it  was  the  herit- 
age of  medical  ignorance  as  to  cause 
and  effect." 

Truth  is  always  the  sunlight,  but 
there  are  lots  of  shadows  —  some  of 
them  exceedingly  dense.  He  stands 
in  a  dense  shadow  who  tries  to  put 
the  laws  of  mechanics  in  a  flask, 
under  a  porous  plaster,  or  compress 
them  into  tablet  form.  Science  says: 
"It  can't  be  done." 

To  perceive  correctly  is  the  first 
requisite  to  straight  thinking.  Red  ink 
does  not  make  a  love  letter  nor  pink 
pills  a  remedy.  Disease  is  disordered 
function.  Structure  determines  func- 
tion. When  function  goes  lame,  look 
to  the  structure  for  cause. 

Reason  is  an  attribute  of  man. 
It  should  be  applied  to  the  ills  of  man. 

[39] 


.Science  says,  "It  can't  be  done" 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

So  it  is,  but  much  of  the  reasoning 
is  not  reasonable,  it  is  based  on  im- 
perfect observation  of  fundamentals. 
Truth  should  not  be  sought  through 
the  wrong  end  of  the  telescope.  A 
look  at  the  tongue  gives  one  a  poor 
idea  of  the  twisted  spinal  joint  that 
is  indirectly  impairing  the  activity  of 
a  kidney;  to  study  the  effect  of  dead 
"bugs"  on  the  living  body  prepares 
one  rather  imperfectly  to  set  a  sub- 
luxated  innominate  bone. 

Values  make  the  race  of  life  a 
gamble.  Strange  what  a  stake  some 
will  play  at  the  game.  There  have 
been  men  who  would  pay  more  for  a 
pedigreed  calf,  any  day,  than  for  the 
health  and  welfare  of  themselves  or 
their  children.  Curious,  is  it  not,  how 
many  bird,  art,  and  literary  clubs 
there  are,  yet  what  little  value  is 
placed  upon  club  studies  in  matters 
pertaining  to  physical  man?  Would 
you  not  question  the  devotion  of  a 
parent  for  a  child  when  the  value 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

placed  upon  a  physician's  friendship 
exceeded  the  value  placed  upon  the 
comfort  or  even  the  life  of  a  child? 
Such  evaluation  is  not  uncommon. 
Strange  how  esteemed  tradition  out- 
weighs the  values  of  scientific  evidence! 
If  you  are  interested  in  life  you  are 
interested  in  osteopathy.  Osteopathy 
aims  that  the  structure  through  which 
human  life  is  manifest  shall  be  perfect 
in  architecture  —  structurally  as  God 
intended. 


[42] 


PART  II 

Find  it,  fix  it,  leave  it  alone 

—  A.  T.  STILL. 

FUNNY  what  a  sacred  sack  of  musty 
notions  we  delight  to  carry,  consent- 
ing to  neither  a  peek  nor  a  puncture. 
Our  sack  may  be  weighty  or  light, 
yet  avoirdupois  does  not  determine 
worth.  Values  are  appraised  by  those 
faithful  old  assessors,  Truth,  Utility, 
and  Desirability.  Their  estimate  on 
our  treasured  opinions  may  save  us 
taxes. 

Opinions  grow  in  a  peculiar  mix- 
ture termed  "mental  soil."  Our  be- 
liefs spring  from  a  conglomerate 
clod  of  truth  and  untruth,  information 
and  ignorance,  learning  and  teaching, 
knowledge  and  hearsay,  investigation 
and  prejudice,  confidence  and  dis- 
trust, evidence  and  assumption,  per- 

[43] 


a  sacred  sack  of  musty  notions  we 
delight  to  carry 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

ception  and  deception,  progress  and 
tradition,  desire  and  satisfaction, 
choice  and  habit,  fact  and  fancy. 

The  same  soil  will  grow  roses  or 
ragweed.  Blossoms  depend  upon  the 
planting  and  care.  Farmers  break 
up  their  acres  with  the  expectation  of 
more  profitable  croppage.  They  have 
learned  that  occasionally  to  turn  the 
sod  frees  useful  ingredients.  Every 
man  is  his  own  mental  farmer.  Enter- 
prise prompts  him  to  furrow  occasion- 
ally his  intellectual  estate  that  he  may 
harvest  more  practical  opinions. 

Epoch-marking  ideas  often  do  not 
receive  a  diplomatic  welcome. 

The  views  of  Dr.  Still  with  ref- 
erence to  disease  were  mental  vapor- 
ings  to  those  worshiping  tradition. 
The  practical  service  to  man  of  the 
Doctor's  observations  are  still  being 
surveyed  and  charted.  The  mechanis- 
tic conception  of  structure  and  func- 
tion is  being  proven  the  legitimate 
child  of  science. 

[45] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

When  the  mechanism  of  man  ex- 
hibits something  wrong,  its  capacity 
for  defense  against  fellow  or  microbe 
is  correspondingly  impaired.  Imagine 
a  man  winning  a  boxing  contest  with 
a  sprained  shoulder  or  a  woman  put- 
ting typhoid  or  pneumonia  to  rout 
while  the  mechanism  controlling  her 
ductless  glands  is  suffering  serious 
mechanical  disturbance. 

Bugs  and  bacilli  have  their  laws 
of  life  just  as  do  men,  animals,  plants, 
and  every  living  thing.  When  a  vi- 
cious bug  encounters  a  man,  the  game 
is  played  according  to  Darwinian  rule 
-"The  survival  of  the  fittest!" 

Law  is  the  governor  of  life.  Things 
do  not  click  by  chance  in  an  orderly 
world.  Health  is  not  a  product  of 
guesswork  and  gambling.  Existence, 
whether  of  a  single-celled  protozoan  or 
of  a  countless-celled  man,  is  ruled  by 
law.  We  are  physico-chemical  mecha- 
nisms and  as  such  must  be  subject 
to  the  rules  of  the  biological  game. 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

When  our  physical  structure  is  dis- 
turbed, it  must  be  promptly  adjusted 
or  it  scores  against  health  in  this 
little  sport  called  "life." 

He  who  would  be  a  John  Burroughs 
of  germdom  must  borrow  the  eyes  of 
the  microscope.  Even  then  he  will 
have  tq  be  a  keen  observer  to  record 
accurately  the  natural  history,  the 
life  incidents,  of  many  of  our  bug 
contemporaries.  The  sleuths  on  the 
trail  of  these  little  compromisers  of 
human  happiness  are  many.  Bug 
biographies  are  being  written.  We 
have  learned  that  man  has  both 
friends  and  enemies  among  the  micro 
tribes.  In  fact,  without  the  aid  of 
some  of  these  little  friends  he  could 
not  live.  Without  encountering  the 
enmity  of  others  few  men  die.  Some 
of  the  enemy  band,  once  defeated, 
make  a  lifelong  truce  with  a  man  — 
for  instance  the  germs  of  smallpox 
and  most  of  those  causing  the  diseases 
of  childhood.  Others  agree  to  an 

[47] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

armistice  of  rather  indefinite  duration 
-  influenza   and   pneumonia   may   be 
cited  as  examples. 

The  presence  of  the  enemy  germs, 
with  their  poisons  that  destroy,  calls 
to  action,  for  the  preservation  of  the 
body,  a  defensive  mechanism  of  which 
the  ductless  glands  form  the  .training 
stations  and  munition  factories  for 
the  defenders.  Antibodies  are  manu- 
factured and  used  to  bomb  the  in- 
vaders to  destruction  or  rout.  When 
the  local  training  stations  show  un- 
preparedness  for  the  enemy  assaults, 
man  must  capitulate.  With  an  ade- 
quate preparedness  on  the  part  of 
the  body's  defensive  organization,  the 
germs  surrender.  Preparedness  im- 
plies mechanical  perfection  in  all  de- 
tails, associated  with  the  defensive 
organization. 

Experiments  are  being  made  with 
serums,  antitoxins,  and  vaccines  where- 
by this  military  service  of  prepared- 
ness of  one  animal  may  be  appropri- 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

ated  by  the  other.  Just  as  in  war, 
the  manufactures  of  one  nation  may 
be  purchased  for  use  by  the  military 
machine  of  another.  In  some  measure 
these  organic  trading  efforts  have 
given  promise  of  success.  However, 
the  biological  and  chemical  reactions 
of  each  organism  in  the  face  of 
even  the  same  enemy  are  so  varied 
and  involve  processes  so  beyond 
the  present  powers  of  man  to  in- 
vestigate, that  only  a  measure  of  suc- 
cess has  attended  such  experiments 
in  biological  commerce.  In  actual 
practice,  osteopathy  often  proves  its 
potency  in  assisting  the  defensive 
mechanism  to  operate  successfully 
when  serums  and  vaccines  fail. 

The  intelligence  inherent  in  each 
organism  knows  best  its  own  de- 
fensive needs  and  limitations,  and 
the  primary  requisite  seems  to  be 
to  have  freedom  from  all  obstructions 
so  that  it  can  make  requisition  from 
normal  sources  and  continue  to  defend 

[49] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

itself  successfully  against  hostile  in- 
vasions. 

In  the  battles  of  life,  man,  you 
see,  is  not  the  captain  of  his  own 
defense.  He  forms  just  the  battle- 
ground whereon  is  determined  his 
existence  or  demise.  All  he  can  do  is 
to  increase  his  natural  resistance  and 
to  clear  the  field  for  action.  Over 
the  marshaling  of  the  soldiers  (white 
blood  corpuscles)  and  munitions  (anti- 
bodies and  antitoxins)  he  has  no  au- 
thority. Nature  has  wisely  placed  that 
outside  the  command  of  the  will. 

In  the  light  of  recent  biological 
studies,  the  time-stained,  popular 
notions  of  disease  need  the  laundry. 
Yet  some  people  seem  to  prefer  the 
soiled  linen  of  antiquated  ideas. 

The  body  presents,  as  a  whole,  a 
commonwealth  of  cells,  a  chemical 
caldron,  an  electrical  instrument,  a 
vital  mechanism  finished  from  the 
hand  of  the  Creator.  The  efficiency 
of  an  electrical  instrument  is  condi- 

[50] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

tioned  upon  its  being  structurally  and 
chemically  complete.  The  efficiency 
of  a  chemical  manufacturing  plant,  in 
the  course  of  a  constant  supply,  de- 
pends upon  each  department  doing 
its  assignment  with  perfect  freedom 
of  motion. 

The  perfect  relationship  of  parts 
and  the  food  supply  are  the  prime  con- 
siderations for  the  effectual  operation 
of  the  human  organism.  The  fuel  (food) 
for  the  boiler  must  be  adequate  in 
kind  and  quantity  and  the  engine  must 
have  all  its  parts  properly  in  place 
to  convert  the  energy  of  the  fuel 
into  useful  work. 

Our  mechanism  is  more  delicate  in 
its  organization  and  operation  than 
our  IngersoIIs,  and  it  needs  just  as 
careful  and  infinitely  more  intelligent 
adjustment. 

Demeriting  deviations  of  the  bodily 
structure  may  pass  in  obscurity 
beneath  untrained  fingers.  A  blind 
man  reads  a  page  of  embossed  dots. 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

Could  you?  The  grasp  of  a  pen- 
holder over  a  prescription  blank  is 
imperfect  training  for  palpating  many 
minor  deviations  from  normal. 

You  do  not  need  a  sledge  hammer 
to  repair  a  watch,  nor  is  violence  an 
essential  of  corrective  work  on  the 
frame  of  man.  No  one  would  expect 
a  youngster  to  pull  hard  enough  to 
set  a  dislocated  shoulder,  nor  does  it 
take  the  strength  of  a  Sampson  to 
establish  normal  mobility  in  some  of 
the  delicate  articulations  of  the  spine. 
Knowledge  and  judgment  form  the 
balance  wheel  in  human  engineering. 
The  man  who  tells  you  that  oste- 
opathy spells  "rough  usage"  is  either 
void  of  intelligent  osteopathic  ex- 
perience or  perpetrates  a  deliberate 
falsehood. 

Did  you  ever  hear  of  some  one 
being  advised  that  they  "could  not 
stand  it"  to  take  osteopathic  treat- 
ment, pugilistic  tactics  being  im- 
plied? Just  because  you  drive  into 

[52] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

a  garage  is  no  indication  that  the 
foreman  of  that  institution  or  his 
subordinates  will  unceremoniously  at- 
tack your  car  with  a  sixteen-pound 
maul,  merely  for  general  results,  giv- 
ing the  machine  a  sound  beating-up 
from  radiator  to  spare-rim.  Four  or 
more  years  of  training  ought  to  have 
imparted  as  much  discretion  to  the 
osteopathic  brain  as  an  apprenticeship 
has  to  that  of  the  garage  mechanic. 
The  proposition  is  simple.  Find  some- 
thing wrong  and  fix  it.  That  is  what 
Mr.  Automobile  Expert  does;  that  is 
what  Dr.  Osteopath  should  do.  It 
suggests  neither  the  sledge  hammer 
nor  the  roped  arena. 

An  osteopath  is  neither  a  hermit 
nor  a  miser,  in  this  world  of  golden 
biological  truth.  He  is  a  workman 
doing  the  obvious  to  assist  nature. 

Occasionally  take  council  of  reason. 
When  you  sit  on  a  chair  until  your 
foot  is  asleep,  will  you  wake  it  with  an 
electric  spark  or  will  you  stand  and 

[53] ' 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

let  the  nerve  message  pass?  When 
a  slipped  rib  irritates  the  nervous  sup- 
ply to  the  stomach,  will  a  white  powder 
permanently  calm  your  disquietude,  or 
would  it  be  more  logical  to  adjust  the 
rib?  Suppose  your  shoulder  was  dis- 
located and  you  suffered  pain  in  the 
arm.  That  pain  is  undoubtedly  due 
to  pressure  on  the  nerves  of  the  arm. 
You  would  not  expect  liniment  to 
relieve  the  condition.  The  shoulder 
should  be  put  in  place.  If  a  bone  in 
the  neck  is  slipped  from  its  normal  po- 
sition, pressing  upon  the  same  nerve, 
although  at  a  different  place,  would  not 
the  same  principle  of  righting  the 
something  wrong  apply?  Electricity, 
liniment,  baking,  or  pain  killing  are 
far  from  scientific  procedures  with 
the  given  premises. 

The  demand  for  osteopathic  service 
—  more  and  better  professional  equip- 
ment for  rendering  that  service  —  has 
stimulated  for  osteopathy  a  tremendous 
institutional  growth.  Colleges,  hospi- 

[54] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

tals,  sanitariums,  research  institutes, 
clinics,  associations,  specialist  groups, 
books,  magazines,  conventions  are  all 
the  fruitage  of  this  demand.  It  would 
take  a  large  catalogue  to  list  them  all. 
These  are  each  and  all  serviceable  in 
the  production,  preservation,  or  dis- 
semination of  scientific  therapeutic 
knowledge.  They  form  the  battle-line 
of  militant  osteopathy  against  the  al- 
lied forces  of  less  scientific  therapy. 

You  have  legs  for  ambulation;  ears 
for  captivating  conversation;  eyes  for 
mental  photography;  brains  for  the 
manufacture  of  opinions.  These  were 
intended  for  the  joy  of  your  indi- 
vidual use.  Joy  is  found  in  their  ex- 
ercise, for  pleasure  is  a  purpose  of 
life.  Use  these  truth-scenting  organs 
to  the  point  of  pleasure  in  the  re- 
liability of  the  knowledge  of  yourself 
acquired.  Better  not  borrow  too  many 
ready-made  opinions  on  subjects  of 
politics  or  health.  Bliss  thus  acquired 
may  prove  but  a  camouflage. 

[55] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

Pianos  are  the  product  of  a  factory, 
so  are  osteopaths.  The  osteopathic 
factories  are  labled  colleges.  There 
are  seven  between  the  Pacific  and 
Boston  Harbor.  Each  college  has  a 
conscience.  Its  faculty  knows  that 
"Osteopathy  is  knowledge  or  it  is 
nothing."  Education  implies  training. 
Training  should  be  directed  to  the 
end  it  purports  to  serve.  Man's  en- 
gineer should  naturally  be  trained  in 
mechanics  —  human  mechanics.  This 
is  what  an  osteopathic  student  catches 
in  his  brain-bucket  at  these  intel- 
lectual fountains.  The  mental  diges- 
tion of  the  student  is  in  high  speed 
for  four  years.  He  receives  the  hunch 
that  the  human  machine  requires  a 
master-mechanic.  He  is  determined  to 
qualify  and  he  does.  He  is  not  taught 
that  a  drug  store  is  the  beacon  light 
to  physical  salvation,  or  that  life  op- 
erates except  through  structure.  No 
chicks  are  hatched  from  scrambled 
eggs.  The  osteopath  is  instructed  to 

[56] 


No  chicks  are  hatched  from  scrambled  eggs 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

find   and   correct  the  something  wrong 
when  life's  harp  is  out  of  tune. 

An  engine  may  be  damaged  very 
quickly  if  certain  bolts  are  allowed  to 
go  untightened.  We  give  the  nuts  and 
screws  attention  on  our  locomotives; 
we  should  not  neglect  the  joints  in 
our  own  framework.  The  spine,  with 
its  complicated  assembly  of  bony, 
ligamentous,  muscular,  and  nervous 
tissue,  is  the  switchboard  of  physical 
trouble. 

Prevention  is  better  than  repair. 
To  correct  the  minor  structural  de- 
fects of  the  body  promises  as  much  for 
the  longevity  of  the  human  machine 
as  do  the  minor  repairs  to  the  power 
plant.  Herein  is  where  osteopathy  be- 
comes a  friend  to  the  long  life. 

There  are  few  "One  Hoss  Shays." 
Seldom  do  people  go  to  pieces  "all 
at  once."  The  beginnings  of  illness 
are  often  "weak  points"  in  the 
anatomy  which,  neglected,  mean  the 
foundering  of  the  good  ship  "Health." 

[58] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

An  aviator  is  not  only  anxious  to 
have  his  eagle  soar  for  the  moment. 
He  wants  it  to  be  kept  in  flying  trim. 
We  presumably  desire  the  same  of 
our  little  monoplanes.  If  we  took  as 
good  care  of  our  body  as  he  does  of 
his  aircraft,  to  see  that  all  parts  are 
properly  adjusted  and  all  needs  sup- 
plied, we  would  not  be  taking  the 
aviator's  chance  on  "keeping  up"  if 
something  goes  wrong. 

The  synonym  for  osteopathy  is  sur- 
gery. Surgery  is  described  in  Webster's 
dictionary  as  "The  act  and  art  of 
treating  injuries  or  diseases  by  manual 
operations."  This  admirably  describes 
the  procedures  of  osteopathy  applied 
to  the  correction  of  parts  that  evi- 
dence something  wrong.  Treating 
means  adjusting  and  implies  carefully 
and  skillfully  replacing  the  tissues  to 
their  normal  relationships;  not  sledge- 
hammer thrusts  upon  the  delicate 
organic  structures  associated  with  the 
human  body,  not  massage  or  rubbing, 

[59] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

—  but  just  the  above  as  defined 
under  surgery. 

Cases  which  actually  require  opera- 
tive surgery  are  diagnosed  as  surgical 
and  referred  either  to  an  osteopathic 
surgeon  or  a  medical  surgeon  for  such 
operative  procedures  as  may  be  needed. 

Partnerships  began  with  the  ele- 
ments. For  practical  purposes,  early 
in  the  earth's  history,  oxygen  formed 
a  partnership  with  two  hydrogen  com- 
panions and  gave  forth  water.  There 
are  sixteen  elements  cooperating  to 
form  man.  Partnerships  of  more  or 
less  magnitude  have  continued  to  be 
formed  throughout  the  chemical,  bio- 
logical, and  social  world  during  the 
course  of  our  evolution  as  reciprocal 
advantage  has  been  apparent.  The 
partnership  of  osteopathy  and  surgery 
came  as  a  natural  consequence  of 
the  mutual  benefits  to  be  obtained. 
What  could  be  done  by  adjustment 
of  structure  need  not  be  attempted 
by  mutilation  of  form.  That  which 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

could  not  be  accomplished  by  correc- 
tion of  relationships  may  be  cor- 
rected by  incision  and  repair.  The 
partnership  has  been  a  success.  This 
understanding  between  osteopathy  and 
surgery  leads  to  accomplishments  im- 
possible without  cooperation. 

A  name  does  not  determine  value. 
Yet  values  may  be  determined  by 
a  name.  Osteopathy  was  the  name 
chosen  by  Dr.  Andrew  Taylor  Still 
for  the  system  of  therapy  he  origi- 
nated. In  this  day  of  imitations,  de- 
ceptions, and  impositions,  look  for  the 
name.  The  statutes  have  thrown  a 
protection  about  the  word.  It  guides 
to  those  trained  in  human  mechanics. 

Counterfeit  osteopathy  bespeaks  the 
worth  of  the  genuine.  Things  of  little 
value  are  not  counterfeited.  Spurious 
bank  deposit  slips  are  unheard  of. 
It  is  the  accompaniment  of  the  slips, 
as  they  pass  the  teller's  window,  that 
are  imitated.  These  imitations  of  gen- 
uine osteopathy  appear  under  vari- 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

ous  names  and  banners  of  uncertain 
hue.  If  you  prefer  shoddy  when  wool 
is  available,  help  yourself.  Wearing 
qualities  offer  better  testimony  than 
a  shrewd  salesman. 

Osteopathy  won  its  first  credit 
marks  by  giving  the  "knock  out" 
to  disorders  that  had  shaken  their 
fists  in  defiance  of  every  previous 
attempt  to  overcome  them.  A  system 
of  procedure  that  avails  when  tried 
as  a  last  resort  is  even  more  satis- 
factory if  tested  when  something  goes 
wrong  all  of  a  sudden,  as  in  the  acute 
disorders.  This  is  not  a  fairy  tale. 
The  evidence  is  sustained  in  the  court 
of  experience. 

Laboratories  are  maintained  for  the 
investigation  of  such  properties  and 
activities  of  matter  as  are  not  dis- 
cernible without  special  apparatus. 
Suppose  we  take  a  look  at  osteop- 
athy under  laboratory  examination.  At 
Chicago  there  is  an  institution  whose 
every  purpose  is  to  put  osteopathy 

[62] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

on  trial.  It  is  called  the  A.  T.  Still 
Research  Institute.  Every  experiment 
on  thousands  of  animals,  every  chemical 
and  biological  investigation  that  has 
been  completed,  has  but  served  to  sub- 
stantiate the  mechanistic  theory  as  to 
the  cause  and  cure  of  disease. 

The  history  of  osteopathy  dates 
from  June,  1874.  It  was  then  that 
there  came  to  Dr.  Andrew  Taylor 
Still  the  first  clear  vision  of  the 
necessity  for  perfect  structural  re- 
lationships in  the  body  in  order  that 
the  organic  functions  might  be  normal. 
Years  have  gone  and  with  them  has 
passed  "The  Father  of  Osteopathy." 
His  death  occurred  December  12, 
1917,  at  the  age  of  eighty-nine.  He 
had  lived  to  see  his  theories  accepted 
by  men  given  to  scientific  investiga- 
tion. The  truth  which  he  discovered 
will  contribute  to  human  welfare  so 
long  as  knowledge  shall  endure.  A 
monument  was  unveiled  in  his  honor 
at  Kirksville,  Missouri,  in  June,  1917, 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

but  a  greater  monument  is  found  in 
the  hearts  of  truth-loving  people  who 
appreciate  his  discoveries  leading  to 
therapeutic  reform. 

Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  laboratory 
producing  a  drop  of  blood,  an  ounce 
of  lymph,  or  even  a  tear,  true  to 
the  chemical  formula  of  nature?  It 
has  not  been  done  —  it  is  not  likely 
that  it  will  be  accomplished.  Nature 
knows  best.  Fix  what  is  wrong  and 
let  nature  have  her  own  way. 

Tonics  are  the  greatest  of  deceivers. 
They  substitute  fantasy  for  reality. 
They  do  not  add  food  or  fuel  values 
of  consequence.  They  are  like  the 
theatrical  villain  who,  coming  to 
the  stage  widow  under  promise  of 
great  allurements,  robs  her  of  jewels. 
Don't  be  deceived  by  stimulants.  They 
merely  help  you  to  squander  your 
reserves  more  quickly. 

A  man  might  be  hired  very  cheaply 
to  pour  chloride  of  lime  down  your 
sink.  You  might  even  do  it  yourself. 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

When  sewer  gas  is  leaking,  and  you 
know  it,  you  want  a  plumber  to 
overhaul  the  piping,  not  something 
which  will  quell  the  stench  for  a  day. 
Chloride  of  lime  may  be  cheaper  than 
plumber's  bills,  but  how  about  the 
consequences?  Results  rather  than  ex- 
pense is  a  more  becoming  entry  in 
the  ledger  of  common  sense. 

Beginnings  in  life  are  small,  as  are 
the  beginnings  of  the  dissolution  of 
life.  It  took  us  a  long  time  to  digest 
the  theory  that  we  and  the  anthropoid 
ape  had  a  common  ancestry.  Science 
now  tells  us  that  that  animal  is  a 
comparatively  near  relation.  The  real 
beginning  of  man  was  in  the  ad- 
vent of  life  upon  earth.  First  came 
the  bacteria;  later,  the  protozoa  — 
the  primary  animal  cell.  So,  in  the 
dissolution  of  life,  the  item  that  con- 
cerns us  more  —  in  the  cell  there  lies 
the  origin  of  death.  Cells  of  our  body 
are  constantly  dying,  and,  so  long  as 
health  obtains,  are  being  replaced. 

[65] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

If  something  goes  wrong  with  any  part 
of  the  body,  shutting  off  the  nutrition 
or  drainage  from  a  group  of  cells, 
the  cells  weaken  and  die,  just  as  your 
finger  —  a  multitude  of  cells  —  might 
die  if  a  string  were  tied  about  it  tight 
enough  and  long  enough  to  strangle  the 
circulation.  Suppose  that  the  group 
of  cells  so  involved  controlled  a  vi- 
tal function,  such  as  do  the  nerve 
cells  to  the  heart,  the  lungs,  kidneys, 
or  the  suprarenal  capsules.  Disease 
or  disordered  function  would  be  mani- 
fest in  the  organ  these  nerve  cells 
controlled,  and  unless  something  was 
done  to  relieve  the  situation  the  death 
of  the  organism  as  a  whole  would 
ensue  just  as  surely  as  the  finger 
would  die  if  the  string  was  not  cut 
or  loosened. 

We  are  all  dying,  a  cell  or  two  at  a 
time  —  our  existence  depends,  like 
that  of  a  popular  magazine,  upon 
continued  individual  renewals.  There 
are  supposed  to  be  something  like 
[66] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

twenty-six  billions  of  cells  in  our 
dwelling-place.  When  they  are  all 
dead  —  so  are  we.  The  little  dams 
across  the  river  of  life  that  arise 
from  obstructions  to  the  blood  stream 
should  be  located  early  and  removed 
if  we  are  to  be  successful  in  deferring 
that  unwelcome  event. 

Have  you  heard  that  an  Osteopath 
"rubs"?  The  word  was  never  spoken 
by  one  who  knows  osteopathy.  Would 
you  say  a  jeweler's  chief  occupation 
was  squinting,  because  he  holds  a 
glass  with  one  eye  and  explores  the 
vitals  of  your  watch?  He  uses  the 
glass  to  discover  something  wrong.  So 
the  osteopath  explores  with  the  hand 
(palpates)  the  parts  of  the  body  to 
locate  trouble.  He  depends  upon  his 
sense  of  touch  to  enlighten  him  as  to 
tissue  relationships.  His  chief  con- 
cern is  not  to  rub  where  trouble  has 
been  found,  but  to  correct.  Rubbing, 
as  a  remedy,  is  massage,  not  osteop- 
athy. The  osteopath  may  prescribe 


Would  you  say  a  jeweler's  chief  occupation 
was  squinting? 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

or  practice  massage,  but  when  this  is 
done  it  is  administered  as  massage,  not 
as  the  scientific  adjustment  of  parts  — 
osteopathic  practice. 

Fads  are  the  children  of  fashion. 
They  are  not  even  second  cousins  of 
science.  The  high-brow  who  guessed 
osteopathy  a  fad  was  mistaken  in 
the  parentage. 

Science  is  absolutely  impartial.  The 
laws  of  the  universe  were  codified 
before  man  began  to  argue  and  as- 
sume. It  is  not  what  people  say  — 
be  they  professional  or  layman  — 
that  determines  the  verdict  on  the 
truth  or  falsity  of  osteopathic  tenets; 
the  evidence  is  an  open  book  read  by 
those  who  can  interpret  the  language 
of  nature. 

The  reactions  of  the  body  are  both 
physical  and  chemical.  It  is  the  chem- 
ical action,  reaction,  and  interaction 
of  atoms  in  our  bodies,  that  keeps 
us  alive.  Drugs  are  known  as  being 
chemically  active.  Therefore,  it  has 

[69] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

been  thought  that  they  were  efficient 
in  altering  the  reactions  in  the  body 
when  disease  obtruded. 

It  is  true  that  drugs  may  alter  the  re- 
actions of  the  body.  Observations  and 
investigations,  however,  have  shown 
that  the  production  of  such  artificial 
reactions  which  are  positively  efficient 
in  assisting  the  body  in  its  defensive 
or  reparative  activities  are  almost  as 
rare  as  goblins.  The  natural  reactions 
are  obscure.  No  one  knows  all  about 
them.  No  one  can  have  an  under- 
standing of  the  exact  defects  of  the 
equations  as  to  time  and  place,  nor 
the  kind  or  quantity  of  chemicals  rep- 
resented in  any  apparent  deficiency. 
The  body  manufactures  according  to 
its  own  complicated  chemical  for- 
mulas. Call  to  witness  the  healing 
wound,  the  fountain  of  saliva,  the 
repairing  fracture,  the  lactating  breast. 
Specialized  cells  take  the  elements 
from  the  food,  first  breaking  down 
and  then  rebuilding  them  into  new 

[70] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

compounds.  If  the  body  is  structur- 
ally right,  this  will  be  done  without 
hesitation  to  meet  specific  need.  Cor- 
rection of  structure  is  indicated,  rather 
than  uncertain  dosage,  when  disease 
is  present. 

Success  is  a  goal  that  means  much 
in  any  man's  life.  To  reach  success 
in  our  efforts  to  maintain  or  regain 
health  means  more  than  most  other 
brands  of  achievement.  The  exhibit 
of  disorders  that  have  the  words 
"successfully  treated"  written  over 
them  under  osteopathic  ministrations 
is  large.  One  investigator  put  it  this 
way,  "Osteopathy  has  the  greatest 
therapeutic  agent  known  to  science. 
That  agent  is  simply  nothing  more 
than  the  adjustment  of  structure." 

"How  does  an  osteopath  treat,  any- 
way?" you  may  have  heard  some  one 
asking.  The  answer  has  not  often 
been  complete  or  satisfying.  The 
cloaking  of  the  mechanism  of  the 
body  in  fat  and  fascia,  muscle  and 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

membrane  has  obscured  from  many 
just  to  what  depth  the  vision  of  the 
osteopath  might  penetrate.  The  elec- 
trician repairing  a  motor  or  the 
engineer  a  locomotive  is  not  so  handi- 
capped. The  osteopath  must  know 
the  anatomy  so  thoroughly  that,  un- 
der all  masking  of  relationships,  his 
mental  view  of  the  parts  is  clear.  Vis- 
ualizing the  normal  structures,  hunt- 
ing for  abnormalities,  he  proceeds  to 
"fix,"  in  so  far  as  he  is  able,  that  which 
he  finds  abnormal.  He  has  no  rule 
of  conduct  except  to  find  and  correct 
something  perceptibly  wrong. 

Hitch  one  horse  to  each  end  of  a 
wagon,  when  would  you  expect  to 
reach  your  destination?  Nature  and 
drugs  pull  in  opposite  directions.  Os- 
teopathy and  nature  form  a  team. 
They  pull  together  and  arrive. 

The  staid  old  colt  of  progress  often 
shies  at  new  truth,  but  that  does  not 
prevent  a  thing  being  new  and  at  the 
same  time  true.  Osteopathy  is  not 

[72] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

new  in  the  sense  that  it  is  experi- 
mental. Twenty-five  years  and  more 
evidence  that  it  has  long  passed  the 
experimental  stage.  It  is  new,  how- 
ever, in  comparison  with  the  theory 
and  practice  of  drug  therapy. 

The  individual  osteopath  may  be 
in  error  in  a  matter  of  diagnosis, 
technique,  or  judgment.  Failure  of 
the  individual  osteopath  reflects  no 
more  upon  the  science  of  osteopathy 
than  the  farmer  who  fails  discredits 
the  science  of  agriculture. 

Information  never  benefited  a  man 
to  whom  it  was  a  stranger.  The  ben- 
efit comes  to  him  who  knows.  To 
know  of  the  mechanical  basis  of  dis- 
ease may  mean  life  to  him  who  un- 
derstands when  and  where  and  how 
to  seek  for  a  practical  application  of 
that  knowledge. 

Osteopathy  offers  a  peculiar  service 
to  crippled  nature.  Health  is  nature's 
plan  materialized.  You  can  begin  at 
the  cradle  to  see  that  normal  struc- 

[73] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 


ture  is  maintained.  The  laws  of  form, 
place,  and  function  apply  at  all  ages. 
No  child  is  too  young  to  have  some- 
thing corrected  if  it  needs  fixing  — 
few  are  so  old  that  it  is  not  worth 
while  at  least  to  make  the  effort  to 
maintain  normal  structural  conditions. 

Take  the  case  of  our  babies;  a  tripod 
of  causes  support  sickness  in  children. 
Malnutrition,  infection,  and  injury 
form  the  legs  of  the  tripod.  Knowl- 
edge of  the  dietetic  needs  of  the  child 
cripples  one  leg,  care  and  quarantine 
is  the  answer  to  another,  and  osteop- 
athy is  the  logical  desideratum  for 
the  third.  With  these  props  knocked 
from  under,  diseases  of  children  drop 
from  their  high  place  of  distressing 
frequency  to  more  endurable  levels. 

Nature  is  no  speed  maniac.  She 
is  deliberate,  but  her  plans  carry. 
Haste  is  not  a  part  of  her  program. 
The  dignity  of  her  stride  is  impressive. 
You  might  plant  a  garden  and  wish  it 
to  provide  your  dinner  a  week  later. 

[74] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

You  would  be  justly  disappointed. 
Many  a  one  with  distorted  structure 
and  disordered  function  has  been 
almost  as  impatient.  He  has  looked, 
under  treatment,  for  results  in  days 
when,  if  he  knew  nature  better,  his 
expectancy  would  have  been  gauged  by 
months.  This  applies  in  many  chronic 
cases  where  any  process  of  repair 
must  follow  slowly  as  life  builds  —  a 
cell  at  a  time.  The  corrective  require- 
ments in  any  case  corresponds  to 
(a)  the  extent  of  the  repairs  to  be 
made,  (6)  the  ability  of  the  body  to 
secure  and  prepare  the  needed  ma- 
terials, and  (c)  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  debris  may  be  removed. 

As  a  little  question  of  engineer- 
ing philosophy,  would  you  skim  a 
pond  or  drain  it?  Would  you  try  to 
"sweeten"  a  swamp  chemically  or  by 
ditching?  Would  it  be  better  to  put 
sprays  up  the  nose  for  a  catarrhal 
condition  or  open  the  lymphatic  and 
venous  "drain  cocks"  beneath  the 

[75] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

jaw?  Treat  to  assist  the  tissues  to 
maintain  their  normal  resistance,  and 
microbes  must  shift  for  themselves. 
Few  cat-tails  or  reeds  grace  the  marshes 
that  have  been  effectively  drained. 

A  theory  is  one  thing;  a  fact  is 
another.  The  theory  of  cough  syrups 
does  not  look  comfortable  in  the  com- 
pany of  the  fact  that  there  often  is 
an  obstreperous  rib  irritating  the  nerves 
to  the  bronchial  tubes  or  pleura. 

Organs  can  take  little  excursions 
from  home  and  duty  as  well  as  do 
bones  and  ligaments.  Gravity  is  al- 
ways busy.  This  old  earth  attracts 
a  stomach,  a  pelvic  organ,  a  kidney, 
a  colon,  just  as  it  did  Newton's  apple. 
Unless  there  is  adequate  tissue  tone,  it 
will  pull  them  from  their  place  in 
the  human  plans  and  specifications. 
When  something  is  wrong  with  them, 
it  needs  correcting  as  much  as  does 
any  part  of  the  frame  that  is  twisted. 
The  body  needs  food  and  "fixin*"  It 
does  not  need  a  potion  or  poison. 

[76] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

You  will  not  want  to  burden  your 
mental  freight-train  with  all  the  de- 
tails of  just  how  an  osteopathic 
physician  applies  his  art.  General 
knowledge  of  the  mechanical  causes  of 
disease  and  the  result  of  treatment 
is  sufficient.  Sometime  you  may  be 
sufficiently  interested  to  sift  to  the 
bottom  all  the  osteopathic  information 
available.  You  may  even  have  the 
honor,  some  day,  of  seeing  your  own, 
or  your  child's,  or  your  grandchild's 
name  on  an  osteopathic  diploma. 

Just  one  chain  of  events  in  a  single 
case  may  be  outlined  to  let  you  see 
the  wonderfully  complicated  struc- 
ture and  function,  also  the  extreme 
delicacy  of  adjustment  and  action- 
complex,  which  the  body  exhibits. 
Suppose,  for  instance,  we  follow  as 
closely  as  we  may  the  mischief  trail 
along  which  travels  the  mind  scouting 
for  causes  in  such  a  condition  as 
exophthalmic  goiter.  This  disorder 
presents  what  we  term  a  symptom- 

[77] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

complex,  several  evident  errors  of  func- 
tion acting  simultaneously.  There  is 
protrusion  of  the  eyeball  (exophthal- 
mos),  swelling  of  the  thyroid  gland 
(goiter),  and  rapid  heart  action  (tachy- 
cardia), nervous  symptoms,  and  nu- 
tritional disturbance. 

The  osteopathic  thinking  machine 
operates  either  forward  or  in  reverse. 
It  reasons  backward  from  symptoms 
to  causes  and  forward  from  causes  to 
effects.  In  a  case  of  exophthalmic 
goiter  presented,  an  osteopath  applies 
logic  thus:  The  thyroid  is  enlarged. 
It  must  be  enlarged  from  one  of 
several  causes:  either  to  meet  the 
demands  of  greater  activity,  over- 
stimulation,  faulty  drainage,  accu- 
mulation of  normal  secretion,  or 
overgrowth  of  tissue  in  the  gland,  etc. 
Physiology  pictures  for  us  the  func- 
tions of  the  gland.  Organic  chemistry 
reveals  something  of  the  action  and 
interaction  of  its  products.  Anatomy 
tells  its  nerve  connections,  blood  sup- 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

ply,  venous  and  lymphatic  drainage. 
Each  one  of  these  anatomical  struc- 
tures contributing  to  the  perfect  action 
of  the  gland,  the  osteopathic  fingers 
explore  to  locate  possible  trouble. 
Whenever  palpable  structural  disorder 
is  found  the  attempt  is  made  to 
correct  it.  The  success  of  the  treat- 
ment depends  upon  the  skill  in  locat- 
ing or  the  ability  to  correct  the 
something  wrong  (provided  that  there 
is  not  actual  tumor  formation  or  de- 
generation in  the  tissues  of  the  gland; 
then  it  becomes  a  surgical  condition). 
The  internal  secretions  of  the  thy- 
roid influence  the  heart  rate,  are  the 
controlling  influence  in  the  liberations 
of  energy  in  the  body,  have  an  in- 
fluence on  the  activity  of  the  nervous 
and  digestive  systems  and  other  func- 
tions not  so  well  understood.  So 
when  the  disturbance  to  the  thyroid 
is  corrected,  the  gland  will  function 
normally  and  govern  as  it  should 
the  activity  of  the  other  organs  with 

[79] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

which    it    is    associated    nervously   or 
chemically. 

It  is  possible  to  trace,  so  far  as 
known,  the  links  between  the  dis- 
turbed activity  and  the  faulty  struc- 
tural relationships  in  practically  all 
disorders  from  baby's  colic  to  grand- 
father's hardened  arteries.  The  per- 
verted physiological  processes  resulting 
in  pathological  changes  are,  however, 
often  exceedingly  complex.  There  are 
sixty  or  more  recognized  organic  com- 
pounds which  the  body  manufactures 
for  its  own  use;  a  chemical  disturb- 
ance in  any  one  of  these,  and  disorder 
more  or  less  severe  follows.  The 
remedy  is  rarely  to  be  found  in 
attempting  to  supply  from  outside 
sources  the  deficiency,  but  rather  an 
attempt  to  correct  the  interrelation- 
ships of  the  various  parts  of  the  mech- 
anism is  indicated.  Then  nature's 
remedies  will  be  normally  supplied 
from  the  body's  own  factories  and 
storehouses. 

[80] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

There  are  few  "specifics."  They 
number  but  three  or  four.  With 
these  exceptions,  no  authorities  affirm 
that  drugs  cure.  Search  the  pages  of 
modern  medical  literature  for  your 
own  satisfaction,  if  you  will  not  credit 
the  statement.  The  trend  of  general 
scientific  thought  more  and  more  ap- 
proaches the  osteopathic  concept  of 
the  self-sufficiency  of  each  organism. 
Each  organism  is  capable  of  managing 
and  prefers  to  manage  its  own  affairs. 

As  for  the  adaptability  of  osteop- 
athy, it,  with  its  ally  surgery,  is 
prepared  to  provide  scientific  care  for 
human  ills,  suffering  only  the  limita- 
tions of  the  individual  practitioner 
and  the  recuperative  reserve  of  nature. 
Specialists  have  arisen  devoting  their 
time  and  attention  to  particular  phases 
of  the  application  of  the  osteopathic 
principles.  This  shows  the  breadth  of 
osteopathic  applicability  and  adapta- 
bility. It  is  not  a  system  "good  for 
one  thing"  or  for  "some  things,"  but 
[81] 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

its  logic  and  treatment  apply  to  each 
function  and  all  structures  wherever 
there  is  exhibited  something  wrong. 

What  a  reflection  on  ability  to 
locate  mechanical  disproportions  to 
have  a  tailor  or  dressmaker  be  the  first 
to  observe  a  short  leg,  a  high  hip,  a 
drooped  shoulder,  a  flat  chest,  a  cur- 
vature, when  these  conditions  should 
have  been  caught  in  the  mental 
camera  of  the  "family  physician." 
Ten  to  one,  he  had  never  scientifically 
investigated  structural  conditions,  but 
kept  wondering  and  experimenting  as 
to  whether  powders,  potions,  or  pills 
would  remedy  the  result  of  such 
faulty  structure. 

Would  you  like  a  simple,  little  defi- 
nition to  paste  in  your  hat?  Memo- 
rize this:  Osteopathy  is  the  application 
of  the  law  of  adjustment  to  whatever 
may  be  interfering  with  the  harmonious 
functioning  of  the  human  mechanism. 
There  it  is,  postage-stamp  size.  Like 
a  stamp  it  carries  far. 

[82] 


IT  •, 

i 


are  fo/c?,  /rom 
C/aus  to  soothing  syrup 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

Nature  is  the  great  physician;  man 
but  a  humble  assistant.  Few  children 
can  spell  incredulous  when  they  are 
five.  They  believe  what  they  are 
told,  from  Santa  Glaus  to  soothing 
syrup.  The  idea  of  taking  "some- 
thing" for  something  wrong  has  often 
grown  up  with  them.  Unlike  the 
obvious  absurdity  of  an  individual 
Santa  Claus,  the  absurdity  of  the 
drug  fetish  grips  their  opinions,  be- 
cause for  them  the  mystery  of  disease 
still  holds.  It  is  not  surprising  that 
it  continues  to  do  so,  for  opportunities 
for  original,  scientific  investigation 
are,  to  the  masses,  denied.  In  the 
absence  of  personal  investigation  and 
knowledge,  they  must  simply  go  on 
crediting  what  they  are  told. 

The  inquiring  find  the  more  rational 
way.  Thought  is  the  great  emanci- 
pator of  the  individual  and  the  race. 
A  man  is  never  too  old  to  gather  a  few 
dry  sticks  of  experience,  kindle  a  fire, 
and  thereby  enliven  his  judgment. 


o/  your  "  works  "  doesnt  sound 
quite  natural 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

Be  it  morning,  noon,  or  midnight, 
when  there  comes  a  tap  on  the  door 
of  your  consciousness  that  something 
is  wrong  somewhere  with  the  work- 
ing of  your  physical  engine,  Think! 
Thought  and  action  has  ever  pro- 
vided the  adaptation  and  preservation 
of  the  race.  Your  approaching  sta- 
tus may  depend  upon  them  at  the 
moment. 

It  may  be  your  carburetor  is  sput- 
tering; it  may  be  a  grating  of  gears; 
it  may  be  a  cough  in  the  muffler;  it 
may  be  your  clutch  that  is  slipping; 
it  may  be  your  battery  has  short- 
circuited;  but  when  the  hum  of  your 
"works"  doesn't  sound  quite  natural 
you  must  realize  that  somewhere  there 
is  something  wrong. 

Just  remember  that  what  you  need 
most  of  all,  just  then,  is  a  mechanician; 
one  trained  to  locate  the  mechanical 
troubles  of  your  go-cart  and  fix  them. 
Let  that  thought  stick  to  your  brain 
like  a  cocklebur. 

[86] 


Venture  an  inventory  oj  that  bag  oj  notions 


SOMETHING     WRONG 

Many  a  six  cylinder  has  kicked  and 
quit  halfway  on  the  highway  of  life 
because  all  the  driver  understood  was 
to  provide  gasoline  for  the  tank,  oil 
for  the  crank-case,  and  water  for  the 
radiator.  The  added  knowledge  of 
"how-she's-made"  and  "how-she's- 
run"  would  not  have  permitted  life's 
joy  ride  to  be  tempered  or  abbreviated. 

Venture  an  inventory  of  that  bag 
of  notions ! 


[88] 


,.iif  ?P."™|™  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000133010     9 


